neoliberal
Explanation
The Joke
A king (or medieval ruler) is asked about his economic policy. He describes what sounds like a modern neoliberal economic agenda: trading with enemies, pursuing low prices through free trade, and taking previously protected guild workers and introducing them into the broader labor force. These are all hallmarks of globalization and free-market economics.
The punchline comes when the peasant asks whether such policies are "cruel or kind," and the king responds, "I don't recognize those words." This reveals that the ruler is not motivated by compassion or cruelty but by pure pragmatism -- he literally does not understand moral categories as they apply to economic policy.
The Humor
The comic satirizes debates around neoliberal economics by transplanting modern economic policy arguments into a medieval setting. The humor works on two levels: first, the anachronism of a medieval king articulating a sophisticated free-trade platform, and second, the pointed commentary that economic policymakers often treat questions of human welfare as irrelevant to their framework. The king's inability to even parse the words "cruel" and "kind" suggests that the entire economic system operates outside moral categories, which is both the critique and the joke.